Tea & A Good Book Brewing- Installment 34, Introducing August's Book of the Month
August came in with a rush of picnics and gorgeous weather, and if I could will the summer to go on and on I would.
I don't know if it was the fact that I did some school with Elasa today, or the change in my neighbor's tree, or the particular blue of the sky, but suddenly there was a twinge of autumn in the air, and it made my heart do that nostalgic little drop at how fast time is moving on.
How is it that my oldest son will be five this month?
And how did I get to be the mother of a seven-year-old starting second grade, anyhow?
But there, it's only yet the beginning of August and my first brave little zinnia finally bloomed today, so let's focus on that...and oh, yes, the fact that I have something new on the shelf waiting to be read!
(Do you find new books as cheering as I do?)
Choosing August's book came easily this time because I spied it as the Summer Read at my local library, and I figure that if it's worthy of that kind of attention, then maybe I should sit up and take notice.
Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande, is a slightly different genre than I have chosen before, and it deals with a rather difficult subject called our mortality, but I think it looks both interesting and worthwhile. It's good to be stretched now and then...
Amazon has this to say:
Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit. Nursing homes, preoccupied with safety, pin patients into railed beds and wheelchairs. Hospitals isolate the dying, checking for vital signs long after the goals of cure have become moot. Doctors, committed to extending life, continue to carry out devastating procedures that in the end extend suffering.
Gawande, a practicing surgeon, addresses his profession's ultimate limitation, arguing that quality of life is the desired goal for patients and families. Gawande offers examples of freer, more socially fulfilling models for assisting the infirm and dependent elderly, and he explores the varieties of hospice care to demonstrate that a person's last weeks or months may be rich and dignified.
Full of eye-opening research and riveting storytelling, Being Mortal asserts that medicine can comfort and enhance our experience even to the end, providing not only a good life but also a good end.
Join me? I would love to hear some discussion on what Gawande has to say on this important subject at the end of the month.
I don't know if it was the fact that I did some school with Elasa today, or the change in my neighbor's tree, or the particular blue of the sky, but suddenly there was a twinge of autumn in the air, and it made my heart do that nostalgic little drop at how fast time is moving on.
How is it that my oldest son will be five this month?
And how did I get to be the mother of a seven-year-old starting second grade, anyhow?
But there, it's only yet the beginning of August and my first brave little zinnia finally bloomed today, so let's focus on that...and oh, yes, the fact that I have something new on the shelf waiting to be read!
(Do you find new books as cheering as I do?)
Choosing August's book came easily this time because I spied it as the Summer Read at my local library, and I figure that if it's worthy of that kind of attention, then maybe I should sit up and take notice.
Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande, is a slightly different genre than I have chosen before, and it deals with a rather difficult subject called our mortality, but I think it looks both interesting and worthwhile. It's good to be stretched now and then...
Amazon has this to say:
Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit. Nursing homes, preoccupied with safety, pin patients into railed beds and wheelchairs. Hospitals isolate the dying, checking for vital signs long after the goals of cure have become moot. Doctors, committed to extending life, continue to carry out devastating procedures that in the end extend suffering.
Gawande, a practicing surgeon, addresses his profession's ultimate limitation, arguing that quality of life is the desired goal for patients and families. Gawande offers examples of freer, more socially fulfilling models for assisting the infirm and dependent elderly, and he explores the varieties of hospice care to demonstrate that a person's last weeks or months may be rich and dignified.
Full of eye-opening research and riveting storytelling, Being Mortal asserts that medicine can comfort and enhance our experience even to the end, providing not only a good life but also a good end.
Join me? I would love to hear some discussion on what Gawande has to say on this important subject at the end of the month.
Comments
Post a Comment